DIY for Homeowners

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This post is sponsored by our favorite, The Home Depot!

​There is nothing more frustrating when crafting or making than knowing you have what you need, but you can’t find it! I read a quote once that stated “if you can’t find it, you don’t own it!” I think of that often when I can’t find something and have to buy again in order to start or finish a project.

Although we have lots of craft/maker supplies for Mother Daughter Projects stored at Steph’s house, they were becoming more and more inaccessible due to lack of organized storage. Over Christmas Steph decided she had had enough of the mess and started to digitally put together an idea to install an organizational system into the closet in her Lego room. The closet we are working with is 86" wide x 96" tall x 23" deep.

Seeing that everything we wanted to use was from The Home Depot, we reached out to them to see if they wanted to partner with us on the project. We felt it had universal appeal to others like us who wanted to buy and install pre-made components to get the job done fast!

We are calling this a semi-DIY because we are not actually building anything. With the exception of cutting a few pieces of closet rod, all the other components are ready to be installed and come with all their parts to get the install done.

​Please watch the video above to see how it came together, and get more details below!

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Recently, with Steph’s help and the help of a few volunteers, we planned and hosted a craft night for women at my church. A search of Pinterest and a picture on Facebook provided the inspiration for our Valentine’s Day craft. I’ll provide some tips at the end of the post for planning a craft night for a group.

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​The A-frame 2X4 Christmas tree we made for 2017 was designed to come apart and fold for easy storage. With the exception of the concrete base, the tree came apart and easily stored as expected. Because of the weight and size of the base, we knew we didn’t want to try to store it, but wanted a way to use it throughout the year making storage unnecessary.

We designed a PVC (plumbing pipe) stand that utilizes the base to serve as a garden flag holder! People, at least in the south, enjoy displaying and changing out garden flags to match the season. Although the base is heavy, it’s not so heavy that it can’t be moved around to where you want it. You could even pop it into the car and reassemble it at your next tailgate and hang your team colors from it!

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign.

Right after The Home Depot's gift center went up, we got a tour from our local store manager. We enjoyed seeing all the tools and accessories for the holiday season, and also really enjoyed getting to spend time with the manager. He showed us around the gift center, opened a couple of products for us to test out and shared a little history about The Home Depot and his journey with the company. It was obvious he cares about the company and most especially, his Home Depot colleagues!

When you head into your local Home Depot you'll find the gift center near the front entrance--it's not hard to spot. There you will find tons of tool deals and accessories. Check out the front aisles as you'll find some fun stuff there as well.

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It's no secret that we like to work with concrete! It's such a forgiving, creative material. I was doing a little concrete project Pinterest research and came across a concrete garden orb. I really liked the look, but I thought the idea could be adapted to make a creepy mummy decoration for Halloween. Also, I had a huge supply of soft, cotton cording/piping from a yard sale that I thought would be the perfect material to use.

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Recently, we were asked by Kreg to create a sponsored Mother’s Day project for BuildSomething.com. Being that we are Mother Daughter Projects, what better team to ask than us?! We have purchased and used a number of Kreg products over the years, and jumped at the chance to add a project to Build Something!

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We received a Valentine's Day DIY Project Kit of Testors products today and couldn't wait to get started! Since I'm the crafter of the team, I shared a few ideas with Steph, and we agreed on a decor piece.

We were tasked with using a selection of the products in the box to decorate the included wood hearts. Along with the wood hearts, we used parts from an old trophy as the base of the project.

​We decided to make a decor piece that could be used as a special addition to a Valentine's Day breakfast for a mom or grandma. In our piece, "My Loves" refers to my three grandchildren which are represented by the three hearts below the larger heart.

We are participating in a Handmade Holiday Gift Series with fellow bloggers. As usual, when faced with a challenge, we each had our own ideas of what to do. We barely considered Vicki's idea because Steph's idea was perfect!

Our gift idea is a take off of all those Pinterest worthy "mix in a mason jar" ideas. We decided instead of a food mix we'd make up a DIY concrete kit in a bag!

We have enjoyed learning how to use concrete this year, but realized there is not an easy, simple way to experience using concrete without having to buy a huge bag of concrete. Putting together a concrete kit, with everything your gift recipient will need to make three candleholders, allows you to give the gift of creativity to all your DIY friends.

We thought we’d have a little fun with a Christmas countdown, DIY style. In the next 24 days, we will “unwrap” a gift a day of tools and products that we think are “must haves” for the DIYer. Join us and share your “must haves” in the comments!

To see a video of each product in action, make sure to follow us on Instagram.

For the past few years, I’ve (Vicki) strung lights in the tree above the sidewalk to my front door. The branches are now too tall to comfortable reach so I needed a new way to have lights over the sidewalk.

We decided to use PVC pipe to construct a structure on which to secure lights. We first used PVC pipe when we made a “tent” for grandson Tyler’s bunk bed. That’s where we learned it was pretty bendy in the smaller diameters so we thought it would be the perfect material to use.

It must be noted that our final design was our second try at a PVC arch. That’s the cool thing about designing a DIY project. Sometimes it works out in the original design, sometimes it's necessary to develop a plan B!

In designing the arch, it had to meet a couple of criteria: materials must be readily available and it must be collapsible for storage, so parts could not be permanently glued.

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When it comes to December decorating, we like simple and quick! This project meets those two requirements. In this DIY we are making a star with string lights using screws driven into a fence in which the lights are wrapped into a star shape. We are using App Lights from Home Depot, but any lights will work. If you use App Lights, this is a decoration can stay up year round as you can change the color to match the season or holiday.

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Looking for a little different Christmas tree this year? Check out this tree made using wood dowels and Perrier bottles! How-to video above.

A year ago on vacation at Walt Disney World, we spotted a really neat piece of art at the Epcot Food and Wine festival. We took pictures and thought it would make a great DIY project one day. That day has come! I used this as inspiration for the Christmas tree version I made.

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One of my favorite ways to create is by using “what I have” on hand—stuff that is in my stash of raw materials, odds and ends, including lamps in all state of disrepair. When Steph challenged me to create an unconventional Christmas tree, I headed to this stash to see what I could come up with. I was intrigued by the idea of transforming the “bones” of a lamp into a multi-level tree complete with wiring to make it a functional lamp as well.

I decided to use wood platters and other circular wood objects as my layers with assorted lamp base parts as dividers between the layers. I also used a metal tray when I realized I needed a larger base and found I could drill through it easily enough.

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I've been a Gilmore girls fan since season one. When I heard that it was coming back I was so excited! My first thought, I have to watch each episode again in preparation for the new show. My second thought, we have to make a DIY project in honor of Gilmore girls!

With the new show being called "Gilmore girls: A Year in the Life," we knew our DIY had to incorporate the seasons in some way. Who doesn't want a little Gilmore girls all year round?! So grab some coffee and a mallomar and enjoy "Gilmore girls: A Seasonal DIY Tablescape."

We had so much fun making concrete pumpkins for Halloween that we decided to try another concrete fall decor project. This time we wanted to try out a new product, RapidSet, which we learned about from a Home Depot Pro. It's a very strong cement (concrete being cement + sand and rocks). It's very smooth and can be removed from a mold in 1 hour.